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Monday, May 31, 2010

friday: may 21woke up as normal 6.30 am and got lauren to betty's for school...Lauren wanted Mimi to bring her on her last day of 2nd grade.fred got home and we started packing and getting the car loaded. Lauren got home about 10:00 and we said good-bye to mimi and wayne and left for iowa. we had a few bills to mail off and gas up the car...stopped by mcdonald's for a bite on the road...11:00 we are on I-10 heading EAST!

we get about a mile from jennings and we all have to make a potty stop...( jennings is only about 20 minutes from the house!) so we stop and back on the road...i watched for police and traffic over the Atchafalaya Basin bridge...all clear. got thru baton rouge, no problem. OOPS! looks like I-10 is backed up, we took the cut across on I-12 thru Slidell and hammond area....BIG MISTAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the traffic starts to back up, before i know it, i passed an off ramp at Livingston....CRAP...the cars are at a dead stop for about 20 minutes, then it starts creeping, and i mean a snails pace.... long story short, a tanker truck over turned on the Interstate and the State police closed it down. Hazardous spill... FLUCKERS!!!!!!!!!!!4 hours, yes, 4 FREAKING hours and this is just crawling.... they detoured the traffic up to holden to 190 then back down to I-12 thru Albany....i was at my wits end and fred was like a caged animal....glad lauren slept thru most of it.

SO at 5:45 we are back on I-12 heading east and hit I-10 to MISSISSIPPI. YEAH!we stopped a few times to pee and gas up... it's getting dark....really hate that 4 hour crap back on I-12...but we are moving right along.drive on to alabama! lauren loved the tunnel and it was nice to see the water.but at 8:30 we called it quits and stopped at a Holiday Inn in Pensacola...good night!what a long day!

saturday: may 22we set the alarm for 7 am....but for some reason, i was up at 6:00, holy crap! the time will change and add an hour....woke up fred and lauren, come on we gotts to go! Lauren wanted breakfast, but we have to go! on the road at 7:00 and stopped at some rinkie dink town along I-10 at a mcdonald's and got it to go...back on the road, same thing today , stopped less for the pee breaks and on to I-75 south to ORLANDO! (sidenote: i love that MS, AL and FL have rest stops...nice ones too!) so we get on the florida turnpike and get going again.... making great time. we need to be there at 3PM and we are right on schedule! get off turnpike and OH SHIT! am i in down town Houston? the overpasses, underpasses and on and off ramps everywhere! signs EVERYWHERE! ok, i gotta chill, so i follow the TOMTOM and get off at Lake Buena vista Drive.... looks familiar, there is a Disney sign....? so keep going and i am starting to sweat....Christy calls and says Amber is feeling bad and will not be able to met up with us....BUMMER! but i am still lost.... so we get to an intersection and i call the hotel....madeline was awesome! she knew where we were and helped me get back on I-4 and back to the REAL disney off ramp....to to the hotel 25 minutes late!but hey, better there then on that damn interstate!

come to find out, there is a Lake buena vista drive and a Buena Vista drive..... *shakes head*Lauren was so happy to get to the room!

so we unpacked, cleaned up and headed to down town Disney to meet Jessica and Eric at the house of blues! we had a great chat and i was suprised fred did not freak out about meeting "online" people! LOL

we enjoyed our dinner and walked around. jessica and eric had to go back to there hotel at Universal and we walked around downtown for a bit and then caught the bus back to our hotel and swam a bit.....big day on sunday!